The Second: 1 The Next
by jtotheh777
Summary: 12 years ago, 5 kids were given the power to morph, but there was a catch: They had to stop the invasion of the Yeerks. 7 years later, the Animorph-Yeerk war ended, leaving behind major casualties. Now, the Yeerks are back, but who's gonna stop them now?
1. Prolouge

**_Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANIMORPHS!!! K.A. DOES!!! NOT ME!!! NOT ME!!! NOT ME!!!_**

**_Author's Note: Hey there! This is my very first fanfiction_****_so I hope you'll like it! Anyways this is the first instalment of this series. More chapters will be added!_**

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**_Disclaimer: Animorphs and anything related to it belongs to K.A. Applegate._**

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**Animorphs: Generation 2: Book 1: The Next**

**Chapter 0: Prologue**

**(Randall's P.O.V.)**

My name is Randall.

I can't tell you my last name.

I can't tell you where I live.

I know you've been through this routine a million times before.

_My name is_ this, _my name is_ that, _I can't tell you_ this, _I can't tell you_ that.

I know you're getting sick and tired of this, but hear me out first.

Last time you heard about the Animorphs, Jake ordered his starship to be rammed into the Blade ship. You didn't know what happened next.

I do.

It was suicidal. Hopeless.

When the starship rammed the Blade ship, when they collided into each other, it caused an explosion so big that the Andalites could see it from their home world.

Nobody could have survived that explosion, so everyone in it was killed.

And that was the end of the Animorphs.

Or so I thought.

Now, Earth needs a new breed of saviors.

A new breed of Animorphs.

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**_Next chapter - Chapter 1: Back To The Construction Site_**


	2. Back to the Construction Site

**_A quick thanks to the people who reviewed and added me and this story to their favorites lists. YOU GUYS ROCK!!! PLEASE CONTINUE TO REVIEW!

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**_Disclaimer: Everything Animorph-y belongs to K.A. Applegate.

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**Animorphs: Generation 2: Book 1: The Next**

**Chapter 1: Back to the Construction Site**

It all started one Saturday night.

I was hanging out at the mall with my buds: Diablo, Jayhedge and Axel.

Jayhedge is a weird name, so I just call him Jay.

So where was I? Oh yes, I was hanging out at the mall with Diablo, Jay and Axel. We went to the arcade. We watched a movie. Did normal stuff.

We kind of bumped into Rina and June. They had these big paper bags piled with clothes, shoes, magazines, make-up; you name it.

Actually, Rina was the one who had the paper bags. She was having a shopping spree and June was just accompanying her.

So, I thought that we could have some snacks at the usual Mickey D's, and we did. After getting our tummies filled, it just so happened that I looked at my watch and saw the time.

"Great! I'm supposed to be back home by 9.30! I'm gonna get grounded for a week!" And I took off.

My friends slowly caught up to me and told me that they just remembered that they all had curfews too. At 9.30.

Talk about a coincidence.

When we blew out of the mall, we were about to head for pathway leading to the main street when I said, "Hey, maybe we should cut through the construction site. It'd be faster this way!"

You might have an idea of which construction site I'm talking about.

So, there we were, running through the construction site.

June, the shy one.

Jay, the guy with loads of friends.

Axel, the computer whiz.

Diablo, always sarcastic and obnoxious.

Rina, trying to catch up with her paper bags.

And me, the one who's always called "the toughest guy in the school".

Don't ask me why I'm called "the toughest guy in the school". Maybe it's something about my physique, I don't know.

Then, I noticed something. It was something I couldn't take my eyes off. I stopped running and picked it up. The others noticed me and stopped running too. We were all fascinated by what I had found. It was no bigger than a pea and it was pale blue. It had all these wires running around it and when I looked at it closely I could see some foreign language around it. I think it's Greek.

"It looks like some kind of chip." Jay said.

"Yeah. I think it's a computer chip of some kind." I said.

"Hey, maybe we can bring it to my house and I can plug it into my computer's motherboard. Then we can see what kind of info it has in there." Axel suggested.

"I think we should ask our parents first. Let's meet up at Axel's house later." I said.

So we all rushed to our homes and begged our parents to let us to Axel's house. Luckily, they all agreed and said that we had to be back by 10.30.

Fortunately, Axel's house wasn't far away from mine and I when I reached his room I saw that all of the others had already arrived.

I took a chair and sat beside Axel, who was already beginning to plug it into his computer's motherboard. After he screwed back the screws and turned on his computer, I saw a note pop out at the bottom-right hand corner of the screen.

"See that? That means that the chip we found is successfully plugged into the motherboard. Now I'm going to search for any info hidden inside there." Axel announced.

He then opened up a software and began typing all these codes and we saw notes popping out saying that we've broken a firewall.

"Uh… Axel, aren't we hacking into the system?" Rina asked.

"No," but then after an afterthought he added, "Yes."

Finally, after ten minutes, Axel successfully hacked into the system.

"Okay, now let's see if we can find something…"Axel said.

"There it is!" I said.

There was a video icon and I said, "Click it!"

After Axel double-clicked his mouse on that icon, the video program opened up and began loading the video. After a minute, it finally loaded up and started the video.

I couldn't believe my eyes. I think the others couldn't either.

"Marco…"

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**_Next chapter - Chapter 2: The Video_**


	3. The Video

**_Thank you to Aerona for your kind review and tips!_**

**_If you're wondering why I changed Ty's name to "Jayhedge", well it's because that I needed a name more original. I know, screw me.

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**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I DO NOT OWN ANIMORPHS OR ANYTHING RELATED TO IT. *coughcoughscrewkacough*_**

**_K.A.:I HEARD THAT!!!_**

**_Shoot.

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**_Now on with the story!_**

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**Animorphs: Generation 2: Book 1: The Next**

**Chapter 2: The Video**

I stopped the video.

"Hey! Why did cha' do that for?" Jay flustered.

"What did I do that for? Hello, that is _Marco _on the screen. Right. There," I pointed to the solemn face of Marco, "He is one of the _Animorphs_."

Jay didn't seem to get my point. "So?"

I was getting frustrated. "So, -" Somehow I couldn't find the answer to that question. Why am I getting so angry all of a sudden?

"Ha! No comment now, eh, mister smarty pants?" Jay said.

"OK, OK, but just this once." I started the video again.

Marco's grim face started up again. He seemed to look down for a few moments, as if he was thinking of something.

"Hey, that looks like the inside of The Rachel!" Rina pointed out.

"It is!" I said. We had a picture of the inside of The Rachel in our Social Studies textbooks.

Marco finally looked up. He started to speak.

"Look, there isn't much time left, Jake had just given the order to ram the Blade ship. So much has happened, and I have so much regret of what I could've done and could've not done. Man, I would give everything away just to turn back time and change all of what's happened, but, as you know, only the Ellimist can do that...

"OK… I think I'd better explain now." After saying that, he took a deep breath to steady himself. He took another deep breath and said:

"Cassie is _dead_."

"What?!" The six of us said together.

Then everyone around me started talking. No, not talking, they were practically yelling. I couldn't here what Marco was saying.

"Keep quiet! I want to hear what Marco is saying! Everyone please… Will you just… Argh… You know what… I… **WILL EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP?!**"

Everyone immediately kept quiet. Marco's voice played in the background.

"Honey, is everything OK up there?" Axel's mom called from the living room.

"Yeah… Uh… Everything's fine. Thanks for checking, mom." Axel called back.

"Can we just listen to what he says first? With you guys doing that, it's not going to help at all." I said.

I paused the video and rewound it back to the part where Marco said that Cassie was dead.

I played it.

"-dead. She committed suicide. We don't really know why she did it. I guess it's because that she thought that Jake was so demoralised about Rachel's death and didn't care about her anymore. We didn't care about her anymore. She felt lonely, I guess. She didn't have anymore friends to hang out with or do homework with or talk with. We were just too occupied with Rachel's death to even notice Cassie. I think it's also that she couldn't live without knowing that she killed. You know what she is -a tree hugger."

Marco attempted a joke. It wasn't funny.

"OK, I think I've been stalling a little way too long already, OK, here we go." He breathed in and out. "What you have found is a chip that is actually a piece of the blue box. The _Escafil_ device. Ax turned it into a computer chip, so I can be able to store some info in it. Now you're probably asking: "Why a piece of the blue box? I mean, Andalites should be able to create one, right?" Well, _of course_ they can make computer chips, the reason of using a piece from the blue box is, well..." He shifted closer to the screen. I think we probably did, too.

"Well, I have a feeling, that the Yeerks are coming back to Earth. Now don't get so nervous all of a sudden, I just mentioned that I had a _feeling_, just a feeling. If I'm right, then Earth will be needing a few saviors." He licked his lips. "That means a few more Animorphs."

"More Animorphs?" Rina said.

"You heard me, more Animorphs. Now Jake and others don't know about this, not even Ax. They don't know what I'm doing. What am I doing? Well, I'm recruiting more Animorphs, and since you have found this and been smart enough to dig out info from it, you will be an Animorph."

"What?!"I said.

"Me? Become an Animorph?"Axel said.

"No way!"Diablo.

"Huh?"Rina.

"Is he crazy?"June.

Only Jay remained speechless.

Marco continued,"Now I now that this might sound crazy to you right now,"

"Tell me about it." That was Diablo.

"-but we, the Animorphs, need your help. At the end of this whole video, this computer will give off a weird static, put one of your hands on the screen during the static, and you will be able morph into animals, like me. The static will last for exactly one minute. After that, your computer will shut down automatically and this blue-box-computer-chip will be totally useless. It'll just turn into a useless rock. Please, please accept this offer and become an Animorph. Now, I only can wish for a quick and painless death and hopefully Ax will be saved." He gave a weak smile. "This is farewell. Marco, out."

Marco stepped out of the screen and pointed the webcam, or whatever, at Jake. He was looking through the glass of _The Rachel. _I guess that he was at the front of the starship. There were Andalites there too. I think that Marco wanted us to see what happened when starship rammed the Blade ship.

I wished he hadn't pointed the camera to the front of _The Rachel_.

I wished he would just skip to the static.

Because I will never, ever, _ever_ forget what I saw.

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**_Next chapter - Chapter 3: "So what's your decision?"_**


	4. So what's your decision?

**_OMG ALL I'VE BEEN GETTING LATELY ARE WRITER'S BLOCKS AND MORE WRITER'S BLOCKS AND MORE WRITER'S BLOCKS. THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST DIFFICULT CHAPTER TO WRITE SO FAR._**

**_I AM SO VERY SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING. God, how long since my last update? *checks* THREE AND A HALF MONTHS?!_**

**_Now before you start pointing a knife at me, please let me explain first. I HAVE LIKE GOT TONS OF HOMEWORK SINCE I STARTED SECONDARY SCHOOL AND IT HAS BEEN IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO DO MY HOMEWORK AND WRITE FANFICTION. So I am extremely, extremely, extremely sorry for not updating sooner.

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**_Disclaimer: K.A. APPLEGATE IS THE MIGHTY CREATER OF THE ANIMORPHS AND ANYTHING RELATED TO IT._**

**_K.A.: YOU SHALL GROVEL BEFORE ME! FEEL THE WRATH OF MY MIGHTY BALLPOINT PEN!!!

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**_ON WITH THE STORY!_**

**_I SHOULD REALLY STOP TYPING IN CAPITALS._**

**_P.S.: I am sorry if some parts of this chapter is a bit confusing. There are also quite a lot of one-word sentences. Sorry._**

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**Animorphs: Generation 2: Book 1: The Next**

**Chapter 3-"So what's your decision?"**

Marco ran over to Jake. Said something to him. I think it was: "I'm ready."

Jake nodded. Closed his eyes. Opened them.

"Go."

"BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM"

The sound suddenly boomed out. God, was it loud.

"Turn it down!" I shouted to Axel.

"What?"

"I SAID, TURN THE VOLUME DOWN!!!"

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

I grabbed the mouse from Axel.

"HEY!"

I dragged the volume bar down to one.

And it still sounded like being next to a space shuttle launch.

Then, I noticed something happening in the video. The scene was moving to the left. Probably because of the G-force.

Now the video was showing me more of the starship. Humans and Andalites sat and stood at computers, typing away madly at their keyboards.

Then suddenly, the scene playing in the video shot up so fast it was a blur. Then, it stopped immediately, made a loud sound, and shot down and up again. Then it stopped and made a loud sound again.

"Oh!" We all said together.

The webcam, or whatever Marco was using, must have fell down from Marco's computer's monitor, bumped on the table, and bounced.

The scene was now at an angle and it was hard to see what was happening. We had to turn our heads.

Then......

**"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM"**

The sound was incredible! I think I was temporarily deaf for a few seconds. I bent down my head, grabbed my ears, and covered them and tried to block out the noise. All of the others were also suffering from the extreme loudness.

I looked up.

Lights! Everywhere! Red! Orange! Yellow!

The whole room was illuminated by them!

The scene was moving left, right, up, down, and when it stopped, I saw stuff I wished I wouldn't see again. Heared stuff I wished I wouldn't hear again.

Blood.

Gore.

Bodies. Dead.

Fire.

Screaming.

Praying.

Crying.

It was a living nightmare.

I could hear someone sobbing behind me.

Rina.

Then the chain of explosions came.

**"BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. "**

The video was a bit too heavy there, so the computer was lagging and the video was jerking. But we could see it all clearly:

Fire.

More fire.

Someone shouting for help.

Fire getting bigger.

Sudden moment.

The webcam started to float.

Something knocked against it and sent the webcam spinning.

More fire.

Then the video stopped jerking and the computer stopped lagging.

It couldn't have chosen a worse time to do that.

By the time the lagging and jerking stopped, the webcam had already floated out into space. We could see the devastated starship with it torn into two and its wires dangling from it.

But that wasn't the worst.

The webcam continued floating out into space a few more seconds, but then they came.

Bodies.

Some were humans. Some were Andalites.

Some were charred. Some were covered in blood.

Slowly they floated towards the webcam.

_And us._

The bodies came closer and closer and closer with every second the video played.

And soon enough, they were right in front of us.

"Oh my god." I whispered.

Some of their heads were torn off. Some of them were so charred until they were merely skeletons. Some of the bodies with the torn-off heads had blood spewing out of their necks. Some of the Andalites had their tails ripped out of them and purple-ish blood spewing out of them.

One by one, the bodies shot past the webcam and more kept coming. Some of the droplets of blood hit the webcam. Soon all of the bodies had floated past us. I thought that it was all over.

But I was wrong. So very wrong.

The second wave came.

This time it was much worse.

More bodies floated out of the ship but they weren't the only things that floated out.

Now, there were body parts too.

Heads.

Eyeballs and stalk-eyes.

Limbs.

Arms and hands.

Then, as they floated towards us, _they_ came.

The Animorphs.

Marco's head, its eyes and mouth opened wide.

Jake's body, charred by the fire.

Tobias' frail little bird body, with some of its feathers torn out and its beak opened.

I felt tears rolling down my cheeks.

Then, the whole scene shook and the static came on.

"60 seconds." Axel said shakily. Obviously he had been crying.

I could hear my friends crying.

I wiped away my tears and turned around to face my friends.

I said as bravely as I could, "C'mon we don't have much time."

Rina's eyes were red.

"Oh my god." June said.

"50 seconds." Axel.

"So, what's your decision?" I asked them.

"I think now I'm gonna vote yes." Diablo said.

"Yeah, me too." Rina said.

"Me too." June said.

"40 seconds."

"Axel?" I asked.

" I think you already know." He replied.

"So is it a yes?"

Axel nodded.

I turned to face Jay.

"Jay?"

Jay had his whole body turned slightly away from us and his eyes were looking down. He wasn't responding. I guess that he must be in deep in thought.

"Jay?" I asked again.

"30 seconds."

"Huh? Wha-what?" Jay shook his head, then turned to face me.

"Do you want the morphing ability?" I asked him.

"I don't know."

"Well you better decide soon, because we only have - how many seconds Axel?" I said.

"23 seconds." Axel replied.

"23 seconds." I said. Axel has this special talent: he has a very good sense of time, its something like a built-in clock.

Jay was still deep in thought. Then he looked up and looked at me.

Then he asked me, " What about you?"

"Huh?"

"I said, what about you? Do you want this morphing ability?"

I sighed. "Jay, after watching that, I don't know what I want anymore. But one thing's for certain, if there really is going to be another Yeerk invasion, then I guess I don't really have a choice."

"But there is one, right now. You can choose whether you want or don't want the morphing ability." Jay said.

"Are you sure?" I asked him, "If I don't have the morphing ability, the Yeerks will infest me and they will know about today. But if I have the morphing ability, I can prevent it form even happening."

"11."

"But what if there are already thousands of controllers all over the world?"

"10."

"Then I guess we have to do what the Animorphs did."

"9."

I turned around to face the monitor.

"8."

I placed my right hand on the screen.

"7."

All of the others, except Jay, followed me.

"6."

Jay was still deep in thought.

"5."

Then Jay looked up. He looked at me.

"4."

"I guess you're right, Randall."

"3."

Jay wedged his hand between June's and mine.

"2."

I closed my eyes.

"1."

I felt a tingling sensation spread from my right hand to my body.

"0."

And we were transformed.

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**_Next chapter - Chapter 3.5 (Bonus chapter): Thoughts_**


	5. Thoughts

**_AND HERE IT IS! THE BONUS CHAPTER!

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**_Disclaimer: The Animorphs and anything related to it belongs to K.A. Applegate.

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**_REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEWREVIEWREVIEW!_**

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**Animorphs: Generation 2: Book 1: The Next**

**Chapter 3.5: Thoughts**

I went home.

I don't know what you'd have done, but I went home.

When I reached home, I ignored my mother scolding me and mumbled to her that I was going to sleep.

I plodded up the stairs and went past my parents' bedroom, and to my room.

I opened the door and went inside.

Then I lay on my bed, with my head resting on my hands, and stared at the ceiling.

I wasn't planning on sleeping anytime soon.

Instead, I thought about what happened today. Right from the beginning to the end.

This morning.

Woke up. Brushed my teeth. Had breakfast. Lounged around in the living room and watched TV until 11. Then played on my computer until 1:30 in the afternoon.

Afternoon.

Stopped playing on my computer. Called Diablo over to shoot some hoops. Played basketball until 5:30. Then asked him whether he was free to go to the mall. Then called Jay and Axel and also asked them the same thing. Had a shower. Changed into clothes. Asked permission from my mother to go to the mall. Grabbed my wallet and handphone. Went to the mall to meet up with Diablo, Jay and Axel.

Night.

Went to the arcade. Went to the cinema. Watched "Hellboy 2". Strolled around and bumped into Rina and June. Went to Macdonald's together. Ate. Looked at my watch. Noticed the time. Ran out of Macdonald's and the mall. My friends caught up with me. Decided to cut through the abandoned construction site. Found the blue chip.

Maybe it was fate?

I sat up.

I continued thinking.

Found the blue chip. Decided with Axel's opinion to go to his house to plug it into his computer's motherboard. Went home to get my mother's permission. Went to Axel's house. Went up to Axel's room. Let Axel hack into the system. Saw what info the blue chip had. Opened the video.

The video.

Oh, god.

I covered my face with my hands.

I decided to skip that part.

Went home. Ignored the scoldings from my mother. Told her that I was going to sleep. Went up the staircase. Went past my parents' bedroom. Went into my room. Laid on my bed.

And here I am now.

Hold on.

I argued with Jay at the beginning of the video.

Why?

I thought more.

Hmmmmm.

I uncovered my face with my hands.

Wait a minute.

_My _home?

_My_ mother?

_My _parents?

Oh, god.

It has been something I have been trying to forget since I was 11.

I have successfully forgotten all about it until now.

It is the reason why I was mad at Jay.

I was adopted.

These are not my real parents.

My real parents died.

They were controllers.

And the Animorphs killed them.

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**_Next chapter - Chapter 4: One Year Later_**


	6. One Year Later

_**I know, I know, It's been almost one year since I last updated this story. But I just started secondary two, and it's been all so busy. But AnimorphLuver124 knocked some sense into me and I felt like I needed to continue the story.**_

_**So, here's something I need to tell you: Since I'm so busy and all, I might not update this story for a long time. It depends on whether I have free time, okay? So, don't get too upset if you don't get to see another chapter soon, I'll try my best to find free time.**_

_**Also, You might have already noticed that this chapter is titled "One Year Later", and yes, everything here is exactly one year later from the last chapter. What? Since I've grown, can't the Animorphs grow too?**_

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_**Disclaimer 1: I do not own anything related to Animorphs. They all belong to K.A. Applegate. Give her some respect peoples.**_

_**Disclaimer 2: I didn't rate this story "T" for nothing. This chapter has some use of strong language. Please be advised.**_

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_**Now shut up and enjoy the story, thank you.**_

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**The Second: 1. The Next**

**Chapter 4: One Year Later**

"Up! UP! NOW! You're late for school!" The sounds of door-rapping woke me up. I groaned.

"Ok, ok, I'm up, I'm up," I called out. "Jesus." I muttered under my breath.

School. Oh, school. How you bore me.

Oh, yes, just remembered – field trip day, yay.

I sat up on my bed. Why did it have to be _field trip day?_ On a _Saturday morning? _And why the _Zoo? _Zoos were for happy-go-lucky kindergarten school kids. Not _14 year-olds. _What were these teachers thinking?

I stood up and dragged my legs to the shower. I stripped down and turned on the shower.

WOW. Ok, forgot to turn on the heater.

ONE HOUR LATER

The sounds of stopping buses. Good. Time to go. The teacher told my class to stand up and we followed him to one of the buses. I quickly boarded my coach and found a seat.

Awesome. Time to make up for the time not-sleeping. I put my head on the side of the bus and closed my eyes.

Flashes of people screaming.

Jay was still deep in thought. Then he looked up and looked at me.

Then he asked me, " What about you?"

"Huh?"

Flashes of blood and gore.

"I said, what about you? Do you want this morphing ability?"

An explosion followed.

"Jay, after watching that, I don't know what I want anymore. But one thing's for certain, if there really is going to be another Yeerk invasion, then I guess I don't really have a choice."

Loud, tremendous sound.

"But there is one, right now. You can choose whether you want or don't want the morphing ability."

More screaming.

"Are you sure? If I don't have the morphing ability, the Yeerks will infest me and they will know about today. But if I have the morphing ability, I can prevent it form even happening."

Chopped of heads. Floating towards me. I recognized one. Jake.

"But what if there are already thousands of controllers all over the world?"

"RANDALL."

"Huh...? Wha...what...?" I woke up. I found myself staring at Michael.

"We're getting off the bus now. WAKE. UP."

Couldn't he see that my eyes were already open? "Yeah yeah yeah yeah, ok." I stood up, carried my backpack and rushed down the bus. Michael followed closely behind me.

"Here," he passed me a worksheet, "We're supposed to fill in this along the way."

"My god. Worksheets? _Really?_"

"Dumbass teachers," replied Michael.

I laughed.

We were watching a animal show. Tigers and lions and birds and monkeys. The animals looked like they wanted to sleep in on a Saturday morning than performing for these bastards. I felt the same way too.

Yay. Show ended. Let's go home and have an interrogation session with my pillow.

A zookeepers' voice said through the mic. "Ok. Ladies and Gentleman, it's time for the animal-petting session and you will have your picture taken."

Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. Say what?

"You will be petting the Siberian tiger, or, the _Panthera tigris altaica."_

_Yes! _Now _this_ was cool.

I stood in the long line of students waiting to pet the tiger. Some looked terrified to be petting the beast. But, me, no, I wasn't scared. This was awesome.

I loved tigers. Always have since I was 3 when I still playing with toy models of the magnificent animals. Tigers are awesome. They look cool, they walk cool, they hunted cool, they did _everything_ cool.

I peered in front of all of the head that were in front of me. There was a girl who was getting her picture taken. She didn't even look like she was touching the tiger. But when the tiger growled softly beside her, she screamed and ran for the teacher.

I chuckled to myself and moved forward another step.

My turn was the next turn. I waited impatiently for the kid in front of me, and finally, it was my turn.

I eagerly walked to the sleeping animal and kneeled down beside it.

I slowly rubbed the back of the tiger and kept thinking about how magnificent it was and how I wished I could become one of them. I didn't even notice the flash of the camera of the photographer took my picture.

Suddenly, the tiger looked up at me and looked directly into my eyes. I stared into back into its eyes.

Just then, a tingly sensation spread from my right hand to my body. It felt really weird. It was like pins and needles, except this was strangely _nice_.

Then, the tiger, I don't know, like, zoned out or something. It didn't even move. But its eyes were open.

"Hey, kid, move, it's the next guy's turn," the photographer said. I snapped out of my trance and started to walk away.

Just as I removed my hand from the tiger, it suddenly sprang back to life and started growling away.

The kids queuing for the photo-taking session starting screaming and running away from the tiger, which was now madly on the loose.

As I started running away, the zookeepers immediately rushed down to the scene and tried to control the tiger.

So, I guess that means that the tiger-petting session was over.

Students rushed up the buses, panicked and scared that the tiger might chase after them and eat them up. As if.

I casually found my seat and plugged in my earphones and cranked up the music on my iPod. The buss was abuzz with the sound of students chattering and talking to each other about the tiger incident.

I was about to fall asleep again when Michael shouted at me.

"WHAT. THE HELL. WAS HAPPENING. BACK THERE. Did you, like, zone out or something, you kept staring at the tiger, and the tiger stared back at you. Dude I swear this was freaky. I have NEVER, I swear, NEVER, EVER, seen something like that before. It was like, Harry Potter and the snake-talking or something like that. I don't know, okay. I DON'T KNOW. SO TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT."

My god, he sounded like a teenage girl trying to share gossip. I replied, "I don't know either, okay? It was just weird and all. I felt, like, this strange thing when the tiger stared at me, it was like pins and needl–"

Then, I just realized, that that "pins and needles" feeling that I was feeling just now seemed quite familiar. I felt like I had felt it before, but when was it, and why did it seem so _familiar?_

I was still thinking about the "pins and needles" feeling when I got home. I didn't even feel sleepy anymore. I just came home, went into my room, and sat on my bed, and thought really hard about it. I was really sure that I had never come across, or experienced such a weird feeling before, but it was all so familiar to me. No one gets pins and needles and claims that it's comfortable, but mine was, it was also almost ticklish.

I held up my right hand and stared at it. It was the hand that I had used to touch the tiger. I kept staring at my right hand and thinking about the tiger.

Then, my hand felt like the top of it was being tickled and it was really itchy. I scratched it and _was that orange fur?_ Orange fur? ORANGE FUR! MY HAND WAS GROWING ORANGE FUR!

Then, I felt like my head was hit by a speeding truck.

Morphing. The Animorphs. The Blue Chip.

Jake. Marco. Rachel. Cassie. Tobias. Ax.

Diablo. Rina. Jay. Axel. June.

I needed to contact them. And find them. And talk to them. NOW.

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_**Please review. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks.**_

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_**Next chapter - Chapter 5: Phone Call**_


	7. Phone Call

**_So this chapter was doubly hard to write. Secondary school. Also exams. But now they're OVER and I can focus on working on this again!_**

**_Don't worry, I'll be spending a lot of time on this fanfic. The school holidays are around the corner (for me) and I'll finish up this installment. You can expect a new installment to come in 1 to 2 months time. It's very probable, but if my procrastination habit bites me in the ass, I apologize in advance._**

**_Enough chit-chat, here's the long-awaited chapter!_**

**_Also, this chapter is much more longer than the others (it's about 2,800 words long). So enjoy that._**

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**_Disclaimer: K.A. Applegate owns all of the Animorph-y things here. Except Randall. And Diablo. And Rina. And Jayhedge and June and Axel. They're all mine! Muahahahaha!_**

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**The Second: 1. The Next**

**Chapter 5: Phone Call**

I searched through my cluttered desk. I took the things off my desk one by one and threw them on the floor.

"No, no, no, no, no, no..." I muttered to myself as a removed the things off my desk. Pencil case, pens, homework, random pieces of paper, pretty soon, my desk top was completely naked.

I pulled out all of my drawers and searched inside. Nothing. 'Where is it?' I thought as I tried to think of another place I would've put it away.

"THE TRASH!" I shouted a little too loud and tipped over my waste-paper basket, rummaging through the rubbish.

I think my sister, Emile, heard me, because she showed up standing in front of my room, with the door wide open, staring at me with her mouth open as wide as the door was. I didn't notice her until I got the feeling I was being watched. I slowly turned my head to her.

My stared at each other for a while, which was really awkward, then she shifted her eyes to my hands, then to the trash, then back at me.

She then said very slowly, "What. On Earth. Do you. Think. You're doing."

I looked down at the trash on the floor, and I tried to act causal as I said, "Oh, nothin'. Just... ummmm... looking through my trash, because, uhhhhh... I... uhh... accidentally...dropped...something in my trash? I guess?"

She stared at me while she walked away. Finally, I was alone again.

Then something hit me: 'Why would I place it in the trash? That's crazy. If I threw it away it was probably one year ago.'

I knew that I could easily call up the school and just ask them for their numbers, but there was this nagging feeling in my head that I needed to find the notebook desperately, like it held some sort of secret, or something. I shook off the thought and went ahead with Plan B.

I took out my past yearbook and flipped to the page with the school's contact numbers. I found the right one, then I dialed it. It rang once, twice, thrice, and I got hold of the line.

"Hello and welcome to (blank) Middle School. May I help you?" A lady answered.

I replied, "Yeah. Uh, Hi. I'm looking for the handphone numbers for Diablo (blank), Rina (blank), June (blank) and Axel (blank)." Jayhedge doesn't have a cellphone. And calling house numbers were too risky. People might be secretly hearing in. Plus I didn't have his address. I would have to find some other way to contact him.

"Who are you again?"

"I'm Randall (blank). I was in the same class as the mentioned people."

"Ah, yes, OK." I could hear the noises of a clicking mouse on the other end of the line. "Diablo, Rina, June, and Axel. Ah, here they are."

She gave me their numbers and I said thanks. Then, she hung up. What did I do after that? I didn't call them, oh no. I sat on my bed, thinking 'Do they really want to know? What's going to happen after I tell them? What's going to happen after that? The same thing that happened to the Animorphs?' I just stared down at my hand that was holding the telephone. This continued on for about five minutes. I came to a conclusion then.

Yes.

I dialed the first number. Diablo's number. It rang and rang and rang and when I thought that he wasn't going to pick up, the call got through.

"Yello? Who's this? Why're callin' me?" There was this husky voice at the other end of the line. "Diablo? Is that you?" I was puzzled. That didn't sound like Diablo at all. He doesn't a have a husky voice.

"No, this isn't Diablo. This is Mr. Duke Wulko, and I think you've gotten the wrong number." And he hung up. Just like that.

Hmmm. Seems like Diablo changed his number. That's unexpected. But a lot happens in a year. And that was just going to be one of the many things that will come in the future. Like morphing. And meeting Andalites. And Hork-Bajir. Maybe Taxxons. Taxxons are creepy. Scary-looking too. I know. I've read about them in my History textbook. And saw their pictures. Good thing that they've become snake nothlits in the Amazon. Wouldn't want to meet them. Like Yeerks. I definately don't want to meet Yeerks in the future. But I have to. Defeating Yeerks. Face the same fate as Jake? Tobias? Rachel? Am I going to become a nothlit in the future? Am I going to die in the future? Are my friends and family going to die in the future? Will I have to be the one to kill them?

I brushed off the horrible thought. I calmed myself down and said to myself, "You don't have to think about that yet. All you have to do is contact the guys and tell them."

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_They knew we were out here. They believed, wrongly, that we were a group of Andalite warriors, but they knew that morph-capable enemies were hunting them. Opposing them. Hurting them._

_Sometimes hurting them very badly._

_Tom. My brother. Could I destroy my own brother?_

_"You don't have to make that decision yet," I said aloud. "All you have to do now is try out this roach morph."_

_All I had to do now was become a cockroach._

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**(June's P.O.V.)**

I don't usually get calls. I'm not a type of person that talks on the phone. But today I got one.

It was around one in the afternoon on Saturday when I got his call.

I wasn't doing anything much. In fact, I was taking a nap then. I was dreaming a dreamless dream when my phone rang. Its annoying ringtone woke me up immediately. I groaned. I had been having a headache. That's why I took a nap. Turned in my bed, head facing toward the phone. I opened my eyes. My phone was laying on its screen so I couldn't see the Caller I.D. I had placed my phone on the edge on the table before. Its vibrating now brought itself closer and closer to the edge and finally, it fell. That was my signal to get up.

I usually notice these small bits of details here and there. I'm quite an observant person.

I sat on the edge on my bed, still groggy, and I looked down at the floor. The phone was still ringing and vibrating away. Might as well answer it. I picked up the phone and looked at the screen.

It had been hot that Saturday afternoon. But now I felt cold. I had forgotten about all of the little notes of details I made to myself.

Randall was calling me. And I didn't want to pick up. It has been over a year since I had last talked to him, and what he did that time really broke everyone's hearts, especially mine.

I stared down at the phone, ringing away in my hand, the words showing up bright and clear: **_Randall_** is calling you.

I clutched the phone tighter in my hand. I really didn't want to talk to him right now. _Maybe,_ I thought, _if I just let it ring, he'll hang up._

The phone stopped ringing after a few seconds. It worked. Now I don't have to talk to–

The phone. It's ringing again. He's calling back. Why? Does he want to break my heart again? Make me remember what he did to me and the guys last year?

I breathed in deeply. I exhaled out. I tried not to sound like I had just cried. I tried to sound confident. I pushed the button. I put the phone to my ear. And I said, "Look, if you want to break my heart again you can send me a text, saying, you know, something like, 'Oh, just thought I'd let myself come back into your life again and make you remember what I did to you and the other guys that time', but you don't have to c–"

"June, please, listen to me, this is urgent. I need to talk to you. It's really important," Randall interrupted me.

"Okay, what?" I just didn't have the energy to argue with him anymore. Actually, I just wanted to listen to his voice again. I didn't actually want to be angry at him. I just missed him. I had gotten rid of him in my memories when he left but this was his wake-up call to me. It was a wait too long. I want to listen to his voice again. I suddenly felt weary and I laid back down on my bed.

"Do you remember about the Yeerks?"

I froze. The Yeerks. It was all so distant. But it started coming back to me. Yeerks. "Yeah...?" I quivered.

"Remember morphing?"

Morphing. The ability to change into animals. Was just a dream. Was it?

"It's real."

"What?"

"I just morphed like, minutes ago."

"I thought that it was just a dream."

"No, it's real, and it's very real," Randall seemed to be whispering for this part, "June, I just saw orange tiger FUR grow on my hand."

"Are you sure that you weren't just hallucinating?"

"No, trust me, June, morphing is real, the Animorphs were real, and this second Yeerk invasion is real."

I just didn't want to believe it. "So you mean..."

"Yes," Randall said. I could hear the sigh in his voice, "We have to stop this second invasion. We have to be the next Animorphs."

I suddenly felt more colder. I drew the blankets around me. "Okay, so what do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Do you think you can meet me at around 2:30?"

"Sure. Where?"

"I don't know."

"How about my school?"

"My old one?"

I sighed, "Yes, the old one."

"Oh, and do you have Diablo's current number?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you can call him? Tell him that I need to see him immediately. If possible, today."

"Okay?"

"Oh, and do you have Jay's address?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you give it to me?"

"Sure. Hold on." I went to find the pad of paper that I keep of my friends' and family's addresses on it. I then gave Randall Jay's address.

"Ok, thanks. Oh, and one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Remember to bring extra clothing."

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**(Randall's P.O.V.)**

Trying to get out of the city was hard. I first had to make up an excuse for going out at 1:30pm on a Saturday. Okay, I mean, getting out of the HOUSE wasn't too hard, I just said that I would be hanging out with Michael at the mall, 'cause it was a Saturday and Saturday was the day for get-togethers. Does that sound like a plausible excuse to you? To me it does. And so did to my mom. And so she let me out of the house. 10 o' clock curfew.

That wasn't so hard. But getting out of the city, that was hard. I didn't even know where I was going. I mean, I knew where I wanted to go, which was my old school (and I have the address to), but I didn't know how to reach it. So stupid Randall, who was so stupid enough to forget to go to Google Maps and find out how to get to where I wanted to go, had to ask people for directions, and that didn't help, and I had to buy a map, and that didn't help either, then I asked people for directions WITH the map that I had bought, and that still didn't help. So I had to go into a random Starbucks and ask a random person to lend me his laptop for five minutes, and then I used Google Maps and copied down the directions, then the directions told me to take the nearest subway and I didn't know where the nearest subway was, and yeah. Trust me. You don't want to know.

I found a seat and sat down. First time taking the subway. Feels awkward. I stared blankly at the window opposite me, then at my watch, then at the directions I had typed into my phone, then back at my watch and I finally slouched down in the plastic seat. I had nothing to do so I just thought about the whole Animorph thing all over again.

So I was one of the next Animorphs to fight the Yeerks. The Yeerks want to take over Earth and the Humans and make them Controllers. Me, and the other 4, have to stop them.

The whole thing seemed absurd to me. Almost impossible. Aliens. Taking over the world. Something you would find in a typical sci-fi book. All fiction.

But it's real. There have been video and sound recordings, pictures, books, the autobiographies of the original Animorphs themselves. It was all over the news. It's in our History textbooks. Even someone (If I'm not wrong, the author should be K.A. Applegate, I think) wrote ACTUAL stories about them. Everybody since then knows about them. All over the world. No one talks about it anymore though, only in our History or Social Studies lessons, when we have to learn about them, what they did, what happened, who are they. In our Biology lessons, we have to learn about the anatomy of a Hork-Bajir. Taxxon. Andalite. Yeerk.

And now there's this second war coming up.

I don't want to be the want to fight the Yeerks. Hell, I don't think _anyone_ wants to fight the Yeerks either. My friends might die. I might die. I didn't know why I wanted the morphing ability in the first place. I guess I wasn't thinking straight. Or maybe I was. There was just something about the video that we watched that day that told me, _I have to fight. No one else is going to do it, so it better be me. If I didn't at least try, the Yeerks would take over the Earth this time, because there's no one now to stop them._

Or maybe I'm still dreaming. Maybe this is all fake, and that I'm still sleeping, and that none of this has happen yet. I put my hand close to my body and covered it with my jacket. I then stared long and hard at the tiger and the zoo and my hand. Fur started sprouting out. I think I could even feel a bump growing out of my tailbone.

I quickly stopped thinking about all of that and put my hand into my pocket. I could feel the bump shrink back into my spine. Okay. Definitely real. Very real.

Headache. _Gah. Needa stop thinking so much about stuff next time._ I let my brain pause for a while and rested my head back into the seat. I closed my eyes.

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_**You may have noticed that I changed the original title of this chapter from "Morphing 101" to "Phone Call". I felt that I was rushing with getting to the point of the chapter by setting chapter names in advance, so this is how it's going to work out.**_

_**The next chapter – for sure – is going to be "Morphing 101", but from then onwards, I won't be telling you the chapter names in advance in the fanfic. What I'm going to do instead is to post the chapter name when confirmed on my tumblr website "jtotheh777 (DOT) tumblr (DOT) com", and that chapter would be released no more than one week from that post.**_

_**I'll be posting stuff on the website every 2 weeks, so be sure to check back regularly.**_

_**I've just posted a short post on the website, so you can check that out.**_

_**See you in 2 weeks (on the blog)!**_

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_**Next chapter - Chapter 6: Morphing 101**_


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